The American turkey population gets a break for several more weeks after this past Thursday’s mass purging of the ranks. This reminds me of a funny joke I saw on Facebook the day before the holiday that showed the majestic bird on the chopping block telling his friend: “I knew something was up after the farmer unfriended me yesterday.” As always the end of the big gorging is followed by Christmas preparations in short order, and we will soon be regaled by everything yuletide. Still, there’s plenty of fun to be had, and arts lovers will continue to have prime pickings.

At Wonders in the Dark the Caldecott Medal Contender series continues, with ten reviews posted to date, and at least that many more being planned in the coming weeks. Jim Clark’s masterful review on The Assassin posted this past Wednesday and a musical concert review of the latest performance of the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra also appeared this past Tuesday. Many thanks to the loyal readers who once again over the past week have registered fabulous numbers by way of page views and comments. It seems the holiday season always ignites added interest in the arts.

Today (November 30th) is my dear wife Lucille’s 52nd birthday.

This past week produced a flurry of activity with three new film releases in the theaters, a soft rock venue at Joey’s in Hewitt, New Jersey with the ever masterful Gene Focarelli, the Rutgers-Maryland football game in Piscataway, New Jersey and some at-home viewing, and opera listening. The Rutgers game was a disappointment, as the Scarlet Knights blew a 17-0 first quarter lead, falling to the Terapins 46-41 in drizzly Highpoint Solutions Stadium. Soloist-guitarist Focarelli performed a bevy of 50’s, 60’s and 70’s standards with the help of some fabulous guests, including a young woman who this coming month has landed a prestigious gig at Manhattan’s The Deep End.

We saw:

Room ***** (Wednesday) Montclair Bow Tie Cinemas

The Danish Girl **** (Friday) Regal Cinemas

Creed **** 1/2 (Sunday) Edgewater multiplex

ROOM is a harrowing Canadian-Irish co-production directed by Lenny Abrahamson, and starring Brie Larson in one of the year’s most brilliantly wrought and textured turns as a young woman kidnapped and raped and held for seven years in a backyard bunker with her young son. The edgy camerawork, point of view shots and sense of urgency and dread make this one of the year’s premier cinematic achievements. Young Jacob Tremblay is astonishing in a performance that is anything but cloying.

THE DANISH GIRL was described weeks before it opened as “Oscar bait” by the members of an e mail chain I attend, but what does that intentionally derogatory term mean? Oscar bait films can be awful, poor, good or great like any other films outside that framing. This enveloping drama starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander (both of whom are extraordinary) documents the female transformation of an early pioneer of that persuasion. Flawed, but finally powerful and affecting.

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Please wish Lucille a Happy Birthday for me! We cannot wait to see Room. Not as excited about The Danish Girl. It might be fine, but we are a little biopic weary. There are exceptions (Mr. Turner) but most of them have been mediocre at least in this household.

Thanks so much Aaron! Have relayed the birthday wishes here including your own! I’m sure you will find ROOM masterful. As to THE DANISH GIRL I completely understand what you are saying. Still you could be surprised. I am also looking forward to several other December releases including THE REVENANT. Thanks my friend!

Sam wish Lucille the very best from us. I’m intrigued that you gave The Danish Girl a solid grade and response. I too always laugh at the “Oscar bait” disqualification, when all it really says is that it is openly appealing to award voters. But it tells us nothing about the quality of the film. I’m sure you found Creed quite entertaining.

I will indeed convey your kind greetings Peter! Yes, “Oscar bait” is a phrase used to define a strategy, but it says nothing about the worth and quality of the film. Glad we are on the same page there. Yes, CREED was fabulously entertaining indeed. Have a great week my friend. Many thanks!

Please pass on best wishes to your wife on her birthday and our wishes for many more to follow. Looking forward to seeing both Creed and Carol. I did catch a couple of recent releases this past week..

Brooklyn (*****) I think it’s safe to say this delightful and poignant film will be in my top ten.

Suffragette (***) I should only have given this film **1/2 stars but added an additional half because despite its bad pacing and bad screenplay its heart is in the right place. Too bad, the execution was not.

Also saw Manhattan Melodrama (***) great cinematography adds nice atmosphere in the uninspiring tale of two boyhood friends who grow up on opposite sides of the law. William Powell and Myrna Loy are good. Clark Gable I found to be too much the movie star. You never forget he’s Gable playing a role unlike Powell and Loy who get into their roles and you forget they are acting.

John—I have conveyed your kind birthday greetings to Lucille. I am thrilled to see that five-star rating for BROOKLYN!! Yesterday the New York Film Critics Circle awarded Ms. Ronan their Best Actress prize for it. With just a few weeks to go, I’ll say it is my favorite film of the year. I still have not gotten to SUFFRAGETTE, but am not at all surprised at your middling regard. Right on with MANHATTAN MELODRAMA. And my ratings for both IN COLD BLOOD and PAPER MOON are precisely where I go with them. 🙂

Hello Sam and everyone! Hope that you had a good turkey day, hah!
These past weeks I’ve had too much work here and there, so the movie watching has been diminished, but I’ll try to power through to continue my streak. Here are the movies I saw last week:
– Yakuza Apocalypse (2015, Takashi Miike) **** Towards the middle of this film I had the sensation that the whole world was going to shit and that the film was slowly spiraling into complete anarchy and a mess in terms of how much shit was going on so fast and how everything just seemed to go sour. Then, I thought that the film had had a really interesting turn in its plot, one that aimed towards the necessity of people of defending themselves and being in a mind of their own against crime, but then I realized that I was wrong, and it mostly what a criticism of the hive mind type of mentality.
It does rail off towards the end, but at times this seemed to be a more personal work for Miike, and an statement for artists and for himself: stay foolish. It almost works like a condemnation of the recent career of Miike, as if he was telling himself that he must wake up and be foolish and silly to really overcome anything that may come towards him.
And yes, the guy on the frog suit, yes.
– The Mother of the Lamb (2014, Rosario Espinosa, Enrique Farias) *** Feeling like I’ve seen this one before, a deformation of ‘Las analfabetas’, that while more interesting, still has the same failings as that film in terms of great acting against weak characterization. The ending makes no sense. Has some interesting imagery.
That’s all, have a great week everyone!

We did indeed have a wonderful holiday Jaimie, thank you. Sad to say I have not seen either of the two films your report on here, though I know the work of Miike quite well and have seen other films by him. I am looking forward to YAKUZA APOCALYPSE, and will keep in mind what you say about it being a much more personal work for the director. As to THE MOTHER AND THE LAMB, I guess I need not be in any kind of a rush. 🙂 Again, many thanks my friend. Have a great upcoming week.

Happy Birthday to Lucille – may it be a great one
We are just home from our journey to San Francisco and family, where we could not get into see Suffragette which was sold out and left the theater the next day. I could not stand to see ROOM as when I read that book it just pulled my heart apart for weeks and I did not want to relive it again.
6 family members ran the Turkey Trot in San Jose, and then there was a bike ride and I took the boat ride called Bridge to Bridge and had a wonderful history lesson on a brilliant sunny day. We did decide no Christmas gifts this year, just cross country skiing for any who come home for the holiday. It felt like a wonderful gift for everyone. If we ever have grandchildren maybe we will revise our decision. Lots of music ahead for this season and maybe another movie.

I did discover the British Bake Off show and I loved watching half of the first season – so positive and fun and folks lovely behavior to each other. We avoided anything Trump that came up and any shopping.
Thank you for the shout out – that is really quite a good book and I am getting ready to review another T.E. Woods Justice Novel – I have to get 3 books read and reviewed this week as my IT person is leaving for Peru on the 19th of December.
Good to be home after 10 days…We did treat ourselves to a lovely night in Ashland, Oregon at the Ashland Springs Hotel including a sauna, steam and massage and turned the 14 hour drive home into 2 parts. I give the little town and stay 5 Stars for relax and renew.

Coming home to my own bed – Ahhhhh now that is another 5 star experience!

Thanks so much for the birthday greetings for Lucille. Many thanks Patricia! Sorry you couldn’t get in to see SUFFRAGETTE. As to ROOM, yes it is not an easy film to see through as you well know from reading the book. The boat ride, the Turkey Trot, sounds fantastic, and hope to get to the planned music events and films ahead. I will be checking out your newest reviews absolutely. The Oregon time sounds wonderful as well. Yes, no doubt coming home can’t be compared with my friend. I wish you a special week ahead.

We purchased an audio book for the 2 long drives – Anthony Doerr’s All THE LIGHT WE CAN NOT SEE Wow what a book and I highly recommend it. The reader was just okay Last years book was THE BOYS IN THE BOAT….excellent reader and phenomenal story.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving Sam. We enjoyed ours in Chicago and was glad everyone was happy. Brie Larsen was really good in Short Term 12 a few years ago so I’m sure she’s great in this new film. Last weekend we saw Brooklyn! I must say it’s a pretty great film. I give it highest marks. It’s a tremendous film with real, pulsing life to it. I found the acting to be top-notch and the writing terrific. Some great scene stealing by Julie Walters too. Just a terrific film and going to be one of the best of the year for sure! That’s just my quick check in Sam hope you enjoy your weekend!

We did indeed Jon! Great to hear you all had a wonderful holiday! Also thrilled to hear that you finally have embraced a recently released film. BROOKLYN is my personal favorite film of the entire year, so your glowing assessment is music to these ears! In addition to all you say the score by Michael Brook is extraordinarily beautiful as well. Walters too was wonderful, yes, I am rooting for Ronan, who just this week won the NY Film Critics Award to win the Oscar. Looking forward to hearing your response to ROOM, which to be sure is a downer, but still utterly brilliant. I trust you had a great weekend my friend. Thank you.

Well Sam, both ROOM and THE DANISH GIRL seem like films we will want to add to our list. Things are starting to slow down here in the studio for the holidays though we have had a series of back-to-back storms with high winds, lots of rain and several short power outages. I have my mind set on reading your Caldecott Medal Contender series – even if I only get to a few that would be good too.

David and I have been watching the PBS seven part series of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History by Ken Burns. We only watch one episode in an evening because the information is so densely packed that this is enough to process and consider. Because the project uses actual photographs and film footage, one of the things that surprised me was the size of the crowds that would gather in the streets back then. What a difference the internet has made in how we relate when it comes to crowds gathering. I am not thinking it is better – just different. Anyway, the series has provided more contextual information about the history and politics of the United States than I had ever considered before. Well worth the time it takes to watch!

Well, best of the holidays to you Sam and your family and everyone at Wonders In The Dark! Love the snow falling on your blog – may be the only snow I see this year. I appreciate as always your sharing the link to my latest posts over at Creative Potager. May we enjoy yet another year ahead of exchanges!

Sam, I still need to catch up with ROOM and definitely hope to in the very near future.

It was all Bond viewings for me this week as I took in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE, and GOLDFINGER. It was fun to see a couple of these that I’m not sure, as embarrassing as it is, that I have ever seen in their entirety. I think I was particularly fond of the Connery-Robert Shaw but they were all very fun viewings to take in.

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Wonders in the Dark is a blog dedicated to the arts, especially film, theatre and music. An open forum is highly encouraged, as the site proctors are usually ready and able to engage with ongoing conversation.